Tsing Tao u-boat?

[cj]

I'm going through an old book, The Nations At War A Current History by Willis John Abbott and staff (published in 1915), and it states "After hard fighting by land and sea, in the course of which one Japanese cruiser by a German submarine in Tsing Tao harbor, both Kia-Chow and Tsing Tao were taken by the men from Nippon". Is there any possibility of truth to the submarine mentioned?

[Heimatschuss]

Hello cj,

there were no german submarines in the Far East during WWI to the best of my knowledge. The japanese cruiser 'Takachiho' was sunk by german torpedo boat 'S90' on Oct 17th, 1914 off Tsingtao.
(Source: H. Pemsel: Seeherrschaft, Vol.2, p.476, Bernard&Graefe Verlag, Coblence, 1995).

Various reasons may have contributed to this error:
- Japanese reluctance to admit that one of their bigger ships was lost in a quite conventional attack.
- Perhaps Japenese symbols for torpedo boat and submarine are similar/identical?
- General submarine scare after the sinking of three armoured cruisers by a german submarine in the Channel in 1914.

Best regards
Torsten

[cj]

I found it highly unbelieveable also, but thought i'd post it and see. Thanks

[Chris Dale]

I do seem to remember reading something about a submarine at Tsingtao, that after some action escaped the harbour..... the trouble is I can't remember where I read it, so it's not of much useful help is it? I've been trying to remember all day and looking in books but to no avail. Perhaps I remembered it wrongly and it's a Japanese sub.....

I'll post back here if I ever do find the reference again....

Cheers
Chris

[Peter H]

Chris

Japan first deployed submarines in 1905 just after the Russo-Japanese War.She had a fleet of around 12 by 1914.None were involved in the Tsingtau operation.

Being torpedoed in a modern sense conjures up images of a submarine.In 1914 it could also include a Torpedo Boat as the culprit.


Regards
Peter

[Cristiano de S.O Campos]

I´m only read about this in a comic book CORTO MALTESE
BALLAD OF SALT SEA, that have a u-boat was secret based in tsingtau.

http://home.c2i.net/tzara/pratt/albums.html

I have these book.

Cheers

Cristiano
Brazil